Driver update that disabled counterfeit chips has been removed

A driver update from chipmaker FTDI that disabled counterfeit variants of its widely used FT232 chip has since been removed. That’s what Microsoft has announced. The update reprogrammed the product ID so that Windows could no longer handle it.

FTDI has now removed the offending driver from Windows Update, Microsoft informed Ars Technica. It is not known whether the Scottish company has plans to come up with a tool that will bring brick adapters back to life. However, there seems to be a cumbersome way to restore operation on at least Windows 8.

Users on various forums complained earlier this week that the driver update rendered counterfeit versions of the FT232 chip for USB-to-serial port adapters useless. This was not by accident: FTDI included a passage in the driver’s terms and conditions that the update could cause non-authentic equipment to be damaged ‘irreparably’.

The update caused the product ID of the counterfeit adapters to be changed to ‘0’ so that operating systems no longer recognized the adapter. The counterfeit chips differ internally from the real chips, but the difference is not visible to the naked eye, as Russian Zeptobars showed earlier.